In a secret letter to the International Monetary Fund, the Romanian Government promises redundancies and new taxes. Elsewhere in the news, Bulgarians want a hydra-electric power station on the Danube in partnership with Romania. Last but not least, Patients with a medical insurance in need for a medical device need to wait up to a year to get them in Romania.
In a secret letter to the International Monetary Fund, the Romanian Government promises redundancies and new taxes, Gandul reads, quoting a document obtained by Romanian news agency Mediafax. According to the intention letter, Boc Cabinet wants to introduce new taxes for patients in hospitals, so that the Health system would not go bankrupt. Gandul reads that the Romanian state owes drugs and medical technology suppliers alone over 546 million lei. Government representatives state in the letter the intention to cut half a billion euros from state employees’ salary budget in 2010.
This might mean 32,000 redundancies and the cut of benefits and awards for the remaining staff to save 252 million euros, Gandul estimates. The letter reads that Romania needs to save 0.2% of the GDP with staff salaries, implement co-payments in the Health system and reduce the debts older than 90 days to the private sector below 60%. The total amount that the state owed the private sector in 2009 comes to 2.67 billion lei. The worst payers are the local administrations and the highest sums need to go to constructors.
As for the Health sector, the co-payments system entails that people will not have unlimited access to consultations. 600 lei per annum should cover basic medical assistance and GP visits. A GP visit would cost 5 lei and a consultant visit, 200. Business owners owe the state a total of two billion euros. On the other hand, the state's debt to the state is practically unknown.
